LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The owner of four pit bulls that attacked and killed a woman in Southern California has been charged with murder and assault with a deadly weapon, Los Angeles prosecutors said Thursday.

Alex Donald Jackson, 29, was taken into custody after the May 9 attack in the community of Littlerock when Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies searching for the dogs said they had found a marijuana "grow operation" at his home.

Eight dogs were seized from his house, including six pit bulls and two mixed breeds. Sheriff's officials said at the time they were conducting DNA and forensic tests on the dogs.

Pamela Maria Devitt, 63, was jogging when a pack of pit bulls attacked her on the side of a road in Littlerock, in the sparsely populated high desert of Southern California about 65 miles east of Los Angeles.

Devitt died of her wounds in an ambulance while being taken to a hospital.